SC Declares Right To Privacy As A Fundamental Right

August 24, 2017 13:25

SC Declares Right To Privacy As A Fundamental Right:- A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court in a landmark verdict on Thursday ruled that the right to individual privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution.

The Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, ruled that “right to privacy was an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution”.

The judgments of M P Sharma (1950) and Kharak Singh (1960) were overruled by the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision. Moreover, it held that ‘right to privacy’ was a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

The operative portion of the judgment was read by Justice Khehar, who said that the correct position of the law has been laid down by the subsequent verdicts pronounced after M P Sharma and Kharak Singh. A five-judge Constitutional bench, following this, will decide whether Aadhaar, a unique 12-digit ID for every citizen, violates the right to privacy.

The nine-judge bench, comprised of Chief Justice of India J S Khehar and Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Nariman, A M Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer. After arguments over six days, the verdict was reserved on August 2 by the bench.

The question of right to privacy rose over making the Aadhaar card compulsory for every citizen. Petitions that challenged the Aadhar Act claimed it violated people’s right to privacy.

The Centre told the apex court on July 26, that there was a fundamental right to privacy, which was a “wholly qualified right” too.

“Privacy, as a fundamental right, could have been mentioned in Article 21, but has been omitted. Right to life transcends right to privacy,” Attorney General, K K Venugopal told the apex court. In special circumstances, the government can intervene in a matter that comes under a wholly qualified right. An absolute right cannot be attenuated or amended.

The petitioners had completed their argument in the apex court, earlier on July 20. The twelve-digit biometric unique identification card was contested by the petitioners, who said it raises privacy threat. The government, on June 10, had said that for filing Income Tax Returns as well as for applications for Permanent Account Number (PAN), every person eligible to obtain Aadhar card must quote their Aadhaar number or their Aadhaar Enrolment ID number from July 1 onwards.

To encourage people to link their PAN with Aadhar, the Income Tax Department has stepped up efforts.